A college Bible professor expresses doubt whether God will actually guide us in our everyday choices and decisions. He believes that is “micromanaging” and far too “individualistic,” although he believes that God somehow guides the larger Christian community.
* * *
I would not call it “micromanaging” or improperly “individualistic” to think that the God who sees a sparrow fall, and who knows the number of hairs on our heads, is also both able and willing to provide guidance as to whom a believer marries, where she lives, or which career path he follows. While I am waiting in airports, I regularly invite God to intersect my path with anyone else there through whom he would see fit to bless me or whom he desires to bless through me — and he frequently does.
The Psalms and Proverbs (among other parts of Scripture) regularly express their authors’ desire for such guidance, and their confidence that it will be forthcoming. The 23rd Psalm, for example, is very “individualistic,” which surely is one reason it has been such a source of comfort and solace to believers for 3,000 years now. I certainly do not encourage people to become frantic in seeking divine guidance. I do encourage others to ask in faith, to use wisdom, seek counsel, consider all the circumstances, listen for God’s voice in any form, and then to act — with confidence that God will be in charge and that he can use even a wrong choice when one’s spirit is right.
The book The Sound of His Voice (originally titled Beyond the Sacred Page) is a testimony to God’s gracious and faithful guidance through the first 50 years of my own life, and numerous readers have said that God has also used this book to encourage and bless them at particular moments in their own spiritual journeys. Click here for more details.